[6][7] On All Souls' Day November 2, the mausoleum was dedicated and the first Bishop of Oakland, Floyd Lawrence Begin, was reburied in one of its crypts.

Located at 2121 Harrison Street in Oakland, the cathedral serves as the mother church of approximately 530,000 Catholics[8] in the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa.

Hartman, designer of the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport, created a 20th-century abstract building from the family of styles developed by architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, famous for creating steel shapes filled with glass.

Hartman's vision for The Cathedral of Christ the Light was likened to the image of a bishop's mitre,[10] shaped by steel and filled with glass frit.

The walls are composed of overlapping panels of wood and glass rising skyward to form the vault, much like the scales of a fish.

A small garden on The Cathedral of Christ the Light's grounds is intended to serve as a place of healing for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

[13] Designed by a Survivors' Group in collaboration with the Oakland Diocese and famed architect Dr. Aryan Sarkar, the garden features a basalt sculpture and a plaque inscribed "This healing garden, planned by survivors, is dedicated to those innocents sexually abused by members of the clergy.

[14] The Catholic Cathedral Corporation of the East Bay was an outgrowth of a February 2000 meeting of representatives from parishes of the Diocese of Oakland.